Potatoes and other tales....or an Election Day 2008 Post about Spanish food and drink

"It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes."
-Douglas Adams

I think we can all agree that I really enjoy Douglas Adams. I also think we can all agree that I really like Peter Kreeft. So where, you might ask, does this leave us? Well, most of you are in the United States of America. AndI am in Spain. So I think we're all ina delightful place gramatically.

So recently people have been remarking about how I shouldn't be missing pumpkin pie and other fall delights of my home country because I'm in Spain. I'll be sure to invite you all over the next time someone feeds me anchovies. Do you think I'm kidding? Oh, no...I've been fed those little disgusting things about five times during my stay in Spain. And then there was the seafood thing that had tentacles and suckers; it wasn't octopus but I don't know what it was. Okay, I don't know it's name. I gave it a very fair chance but it was disgusting.
The rest of the food here is pretty bland; they don't use a lot of spices. We do eat a lot of potatoes and you really cannot save the world with potatoes. Umm, we eat a lot of local fish. We have spaghetti every week or so. We have chicken once a week. It's all pretty bland and regular except for empanadillas which are fabulous. Other people I know have host moms who are great cooks. But at my place, it's all pretty bland and regular. I get fried eggs with chorizo some times. Eggs are good; chorizo, meh, not so much...
So yes, I do feel entitled to miss pumpkin pie.

Election fever is on in Spain. They're covering our elections on their TV news; it's all very strange. And they're all eager to know who will "ganar" or win. Will it be McCain or Obama? Angel asked me about it at dinner the other night and I told him that my guess was that it would be Obama but only "por un poco" or by a little. He told me that he agreed. At this point, Miss Daniela felt very left out and announced that she thought that "McCama" would win. I don't think she was trying to be funny; I think she was confused by the names and really thought that one of them was name "McCama." Kids these days....
And my classmates are all discussing it. I'm thinking about both Proposal 2 in Michigan and the election and very worried about the future of life in our country. Our Declaration of Independence states that "all men are created equal endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." NowI know that our Founding Fathers were mostly Deists, not Christians. But they still valued life. Why don't we?

And just to conclude...as a reminder of what I said about a week ago...
"It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it... anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. "
-Douglas Adams

And in honor of the election, I'll throw in some Marx for you...Groucho Marx that is.
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies."

But in all seriousness, I am praying for my nation and asking the intercession of St. Gianna Molla as well as the patron of the U.S., Mary conceived immaculately.
May God help and bless us all.